Improvement in frogs for railroad-tracks



W. EBBITT. FROG FOR RAILROAD TRACKS.

No. 33,381. Patented Oct. 1, 1861 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM EBBITT, or NEW YORK, N. r.

IMPROVEMENT IN FROGS FOR RAILROAD-TRACKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,381, dated October l, 186.1.

To all whom it may concern-.-

Be it known that I, \VILIJIAM EBBITT, of the city and State of NewYork, have invented, made, and applied to use a certain new and useful Improvement in Frogs for Railroad-ltracks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my said inventicn, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, wherein Figure 1 is a plan of my said frogs as in place in the railroad-tracks, and Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of one of said frogs.

Similar marks of reference indicate the same parts.-

illyinvention is especiallyadapted to city railroads. It is well known that in many instances the city cars start from one place and thence diverge and travel toklifferent termini.

Myinvcntion is to facilitate the arrival and departure cfcars from their respective stands by simplifying the frog-plates, so that a less number of switches and frogs are required than. heretofore, and consequei'itlyless atten tion has to be given to the switches.

We will suppose thattwo different lines of cars have-the same terminus and travel on the same tracks for a greater or less distance. "0 will call one line of cars and the other I). They both approach the terminus on the track a u in the direction of the arrow, and both linesof cars leave by thetrack b l), traveling away from the terminus, as indicated by the arrow between the tracks I Z). '0 will suppose the stand for the line of cars 0 to be a short prolongation of the track 7: b at the end marked and that for the cars D to be a prolongation of the track a u at the end marked D. If a (1 car approaches on the track (a (I, it has to be switched off 011 the tur11- out cfby the switch (I, and in reaching its but on leaving to go in the other direction said car D has to cross over onto the track I) I). To effect this a switch (similar to cl) at the junction of the tracks (I and (t is moved to direct the car onto the turn-out t' ii 70 7c, and the car crosses to said track b b, traveling over the frogs g and 7t and my improved frogs Z and m.

The peculiarity of my frogs [.and or consists in arranging the grooves corresponding with the grooved bars of the track in such a manner that said grooves surround a triangular piece 1 in the frogs. The object of this piece is to direct the wheels of the car and insure their proceeding in the same line as that on which they are traveling; or, in other words, if this triangular piece 1 were not used there would be three lines of grooves meeting and crossing each other at one point,

and Wheelsapproaching on one groove might be turnedoff and get into the wrong groove at the point of intersection. By introducing this triangular piece 1 in each frog Z or m the points of intersection of the grooves are so separated that only two grooves intersect at one point instead of three. The part 2 of the frogs l orm is formed as a flange that is higher than the other p ortionsot' the frog to prevent the flanges of the car-wheels, which always come on thatside of the frog, from running out-of the groove. The grooves in the frog should be the depth of the wheelflange and slightly beveled down at the ends of the grooves, so that the wheel can run either on the flange or tread, and thus avoid concussion in passing the intersections of the grooves. The frogs Z and m are from the same pattern, simply turned around into the positionsshown. enabled to properly direct the cars to their respective standing places,and also start them on the right track, by the use of onl-ytwo switches d and the four frog-plates g 72- X m,

while heretoforeto effect this operation three By this arrangement I am rectly opposite to each other there are no 2. The arrangeinentd the frogs g,h, l,and

short lengt-hsof rail, as heretofore, s-onstanfly m, relatively to the tracks, in the manner and ters Patent, is-

(l or 'm) at the point of intersection of "the jWitnesses:

getting loose. for the purposes specifieda I hat I claim, and desire to secure by Lot- In witness whereofI have hereunto set my V signature this 8th day of August, 1861. 1. The triangular piece 1 in the frog-plate WM. EBBITT.

three lines of track, for the purposes and as LEMUEL \V. SERRELL, specified. THos. Geo. HAROLD. 

